Friday, February 17, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Bare Attention
By Mark Epstein M.D.
Common to all schools of thought, the unifying theme of the Buddhist approach is this remarkable imperative: "Pay precise attention, moment by moment, to exactly what you are experiencing, right now, separating out your reactions from the raw sensory events." This is what is meant by bare attention: just the bare facts, an exact registering, allowing things to speak for themselves as if seen for the first time, distinguishing any reactions from the core event.
It is this this attentional strategy that is followed throughout the meditative path. It is both the beginning practice and the culminating one: only the objects of awareness change. Beginning with the in and out breath, proceeding to bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts, consciousness, and finally the felt sense of I, meditation requires the application of bare attention to increasingly subtle phenomena. Culminating in a state of choiceless awareness in which the categories of "observer" and "that which is observed" are no longer operational, bare attention eventually obviates self-consciousness and permits the kind of spontaneity that has long intrigued the psychologically minded observers of Eastern practices. This the spontaneity that Western psychologists confuse with a true self idea. From the Buddhist perspective, such authentic actions leap forth from the clear perception of bare attention; there is no need to posit an intermediate agent who performs them.
The key to the transformational potential of bare attention lies in the deceptively simple injunction to separate out one's reactions from the core events themselves. Much of the time it turns out our everyday minds are in a state of reactivity. We take this for granted, we do not question our automatic identifications with our reactions, and we experience ourselves at the mercy of an often hostile or frustrating outer world or an overwhelming or frightening inner one. With bare attention, we move from this automatic identification with our fear or frustration to a vantage point from which the fear or frustration is attended to wit th same dispassionate interest as anything else. There is enormous freedom to be gained from such a shift. Instead of running from difficult emotions (or hanging on to enticing ones), the practitioner of bare attention becomes able to contain any reaction: making space for it, but not completely identifying with it because of the concomitant presence of nonjudgmental awareness.
Thoughts without a Thinker, pp 110-111
Common to all schools of thought, the unifying theme of the Buddhist approach is this remarkable imperative: "Pay precise attention, moment by moment, to exactly what you are experiencing, right now, separating out your reactions from the raw sensory events." This is what is meant by bare attention: just the bare facts, an exact registering, allowing things to speak for themselves as if seen for the first time, distinguishing any reactions from the core event.
It is this this attentional strategy that is followed throughout the meditative path. It is both the beginning practice and the culminating one: only the objects of awareness change. Beginning with the in and out breath, proceeding to bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts, consciousness, and finally the felt sense of I, meditation requires the application of bare attention to increasingly subtle phenomena. Culminating in a state of choiceless awareness in which the categories of "observer" and "that which is observed" are no longer operational, bare attention eventually obviates self-consciousness and permits the kind of spontaneity that has long intrigued the psychologically minded observers of Eastern practices. This the spontaneity that Western psychologists confuse with a true self idea. From the Buddhist perspective, such authentic actions leap forth from the clear perception of bare attention; there is no need to posit an intermediate agent who performs them.
The key to the transformational potential of bare attention lies in the deceptively simple injunction to separate out one's reactions from the core events themselves. Much of the time it turns out our everyday minds are in a state of reactivity. We take this for granted, we do not question our automatic identifications with our reactions, and we experience ourselves at the mercy of an often hostile or frustrating outer world or an overwhelming or frightening inner one. With bare attention, we move from this automatic identification with our fear or frustration to a vantage point from which the fear or frustration is attended to wit th same dispassionate interest as anything else. There is enormous freedom to be gained from such a shift. Instead of running from difficult emotions (or hanging on to enticing ones), the practitioner of bare attention becomes able to contain any reaction: making space for it, but not completely identifying with it because of the concomitant presence of nonjudgmental awareness.
Thoughts without a Thinker, pp 110-111
Monday, January 23, 2012
Toward Silence
by Ken Russell
It is somewhat ironic that I need to speak so much of silence. Yet silence is the most potent inducement for spiritual transformation, so potent that no moment of it, however brief or fleeting, is ever wasted. The fruits of silence are one of the few things you can be sure of in this life.
If you are on the spiritual path, you will want to do whatever is necessary to increase the amount of silence in your life. Unfortunately, you cannot make silence happen. You cannot, through exercises, will, or whatever, create silence. Silence happens when you are not there. That is, when you, as a distinct person or personality, are inactive, quiescent, not engaged. It does not mean that you are blotted out but that your personality is put on hold and a vital presence is functioning. Silence is actually a very alive space.
Silence gives us a taste of what we really are. When silence occurs, the focus of our awareness shifts from its mundane concerns and rests in our Being. This is a profound shift, and healing potentials are released. We become open to the vastness that is our true nature. We normally believe we are what we appear to be: the mind, the personality, our memories and history. We get caught up in the dramas that our mind and personality keep on creating. Because we live in and through our mind and are so familiar with its activities, the occurrence of silence—which is actually non-mind—generally does not register. When it does, it scares the personality because it looks like death. To the personality, the halting of its activities appears to be the end of it, death. Personality is akin to a bureaucracy that does not want to end. It does not want to relinquish the control it has over our lives.
Thus, silence does not appeal to the mind, and it does everything it can to avoid it. Sad but true, silence is an acquired taste. Although it is our birthright, something intrinsic to our being, society has buried it. We are trained from birth to have what is called in Buddhism monkey mind. This monkey mind is easily distracted and likes to flit about from one thing to another or, perversely, to obsess on something. Our conditioned mind is attuned to the grosser aspects of life: excitement, highs and lows, learning and achieving. These things create the appearance of aliveness that our conditioned mind so relishes. Silence holds little attraction for the monkey mind.
So it is necessary to become familiar with silence, and learn how to enjoy and be nourished by it. You need to create various ways to bring silence into your life, with the understanding that any doing is in itself "noise." Bringing silence into your life is more a matter of elimination than actively doing something new. You begin by eliminating those activities and attitudes that create noise and mental chatter. You observe the results of your activities and discover that certain ones, like watching TV and gossiping, tend to make your mind more active. You find that other activities, like walking in nature or listening to classical music, leave your mind less busy. So you start to create spaces and conditions where silence is more likely to happen, where silence is invited to arise. You have to invite it and clear the space for it since you cannot directly make it happen.
To make space for silence, you must be vigilant with your free time. What you do with your discretionary time is critical in fostering silence and has a major effect on your spiritual progress. Discretionary time is the time you have available to do exactly what you want with. Most of us have work responsibilities, household chores, perhaps a mate or children that require our time—the basic overhead of living. But over and beyond that, you have time available to use as you wish, even in the busiest schedule. And, if you find that you don't have free time and wish to grow spiritually, it is imperative that you create free time for yourself.
It is much easier for silence to happen when the mind is quiet, so do what you can to quiet your mind. The context for most of our lives is primarily social, and this social life is filled with mental and emotional snacks and feasts. You need to weigh the benefits of momentary social gratifications against the possibility of connecting with something deep within you which is vastly more nourishing.
Instead of feasting on all kinds of goodies, like the news, movies, self-improvement, parties, informative or pseudo-informative books, and gossip, start fasting the mind. Go against the whole trend of society, which is toward constant and excessive stimulation. The mind does not like it when you do this. The mind craves its diet of stimulation. It needs something to occupy itself with. But resist the mind's appetite for stimulation. Fasting the mind issues an invitation for silence to visit.
Normally, the mind is a glutton for activity. Society provides a nonstop carnival of distractions and allurements. If you succeed in avoiding these pitfalls, you will find that the mind still needs to be active and it will provide its own distractions. Mental activity doesn't always need the external to stimulate it. You can be sitting quietly, to all appearances doing nothing, and yet your mind can be working furiously. If you succeed in minimizing external stimulation, the mind will manufacture something to keep itself occupied. It feasts on planning, worrying, scheming, analyzing, fantasizing, regretting, hoping, and so forth. Anything to keep it going and having you believe you need its services. It is like a fireman who, worried about losing his job, goes about starting fires. There is always something that the mind will attempt to snack on. Do not harbor or play with these thoughts or indulge them or take them seriously. If you stop engaging with them—perhaps through meditation or a similar practice—they will die down, and silence will begin to happen.
A powerful aid for using your time wisely is to keep in mind the fact that you may die at any moment. No one can guarantee that you will live another day or even another minute. This is not intended to be morbid but to focus your attention on how you use your most valuable asset, time. Ask yourself how you would want to spend your last moments, and do your best to spend more of your time in those activities.
If you are serious about progressing on the spiritual path, you will be vigilant in how you use your time. The most powerful thing you can do is nothing. When we are silent we are closest to what we really are, an infinity beyond mental comprehension. Give silence a chance. You will find your life transformed without conscious effort.
"It is necessary to become familiar with silence, and learn how to enjoy and be nourished by it."
http://thewayofseeing.com/article_toward-silence.html
It is somewhat ironic that I need to speak so much of silence. Yet silence is the most potent inducement for spiritual transformation, so potent that no moment of it, however brief or fleeting, is ever wasted. The fruits of silence are one of the few things you can be sure of in this life.
If you are on the spiritual path, you will want to do whatever is necessary to increase the amount of silence in your life. Unfortunately, you cannot make silence happen. You cannot, through exercises, will, or whatever, create silence. Silence happens when you are not there. That is, when you, as a distinct person or personality, are inactive, quiescent, not engaged. It does not mean that you are blotted out but that your personality is put on hold and a vital presence is functioning. Silence is actually a very alive space.
Silence gives us a taste of what we really are. When silence occurs, the focus of our awareness shifts from its mundane concerns and rests in our Being. This is a profound shift, and healing potentials are released. We become open to the vastness that is our true nature. We normally believe we are what we appear to be: the mind, the personality, our memories and history. We get caught up in the dramas that our mind and personality keep on creating. Because we live in and through our mind and are so familiar with its activities, the occurrence of silence—which is actually non-mind—generally does not register. When it does, it scares the personality because it looks like death. To the personality, the halting of its activities appears to be the end of it, death. Personality is akin to a bureaucracy that does not want to end. It does not want to relinquish the control it has over our lives.
Thus, silence does not appeal to the mind, and it does everything it can to avoid it. Sad but true, silence is an acquired taste. Although it is our birthright, something intrinsic to our being, society has buried it. We are trained from birth to have what is called in Buddhism monkey mind. This monkey mind is easily distracted and likes to flit about from one thing to another or, perversely, to obsess on something. Our conditioned mind is attuned to the grosser aspects of life: excitement, highs and lows, learning and achieving. These things create the appearance of aliveness that our conditioned mind so relishes. Silence holds little attraction for the monkey mind.
So it is necessary to become familiar with silence, and learn how to enjoy and be nourished by it. You need to create various ways to bring silence into your life, with the understanding that any doing is in itself "noise." Bringing silence into your life is more a matter of elimination than actively doing something new. You begin by eliminating those activities and attitudes that create noise and mental chatter. You observe the results of your activities and discover that certain ones, like watching TV and gossiping, tend to make your mind more active. You find that other activities, like walking in nature or listening to classical music, leave your mind less busy. So you start to create spaces and conditions where silence is more likely to happen, where silence is invited to arise. You have to invite it and clear the space for it since you cannot directly make it happen.
To make space for silence, you must be vigilant with your free time. What you do with your discretionary time is critical in fostering silence and has a major effect on your spiritual progress. Discretionary time is the time you have available to do exactly what you want with. Most of us have work responsibilities, household chores, perhaps a mate or children that require our time—the basic overhead of living. But over and beyond that, you have time available to use as you wish, even in the busiest schedule. And, if you find that you don't have free time and wish to grow spiritually, it is imperative that you create free time for yourself.
It is much easier for silence to happen when the mind is quiet, so do what you can to quiet your mind. The context for most of our lives is primarily social, and this social life is filled with mental and emotional snacks and feasts. You need to weigh the benefits of momentary social gratifications against the possibility of connecting with something deep within you which is vastly more nourishing.
Instead of feasting on all kinds of goodies, like the news, movies, self-improvement, parties, informative or pseudo-informative books, and gossip, start fasting the mind. Go against the whole trend of society, which is toward constant and excessive stimulation. The mind does not like it when you do this. The mind craves its diet of stimulation. It needs something to occupy itself with. But resist the mind's appetite for stimulation. Fasting the mind issues an invitation for silence to visit.
Normally, the mind is a glutton for activity. Society provides a nonstop carnival of distractions and allurements. If you succeed in avoiding these pitfalls, you will find that the mind still needs to be active and it will provide its own distractions. Mental activity doesn't always need the external to stimulate it. You can be sitting quietly, to all appearances doing nothing, and yet your mind can be working furiously. If you succeed in minimizing external stimulation, the mind will manufacture something to keep itself occupied. It feasts on planning, worrying, scheming, analyzing, fantasizing, regretting, hoping, and so forth. Anything to keep it going and having you believe you need its services. It is like a fireman who, worried about losing his job, goes about starting fires. There is always something that the mind will attempt to snack on. Do not harbor or play with these thoughts or indulge them or take them seriously. If you stop engaging with them—perhaps through meditation or a similar practice—they will die down, and silence will begin to happen.
A powerful aid for using your time wisely is to keep in mind the fact that you may die at any moment. No one can guarantee that you will live another day or even another minute. This is not intended to be morbid but to focus your attention on how you use your most valuable asset, time. Ask yourself how you would want to spend your last moments, and do your best to spend more of your time in those activities.
If you are serious about progressing on the spiritual path, you will be vigilant in how you use your time. The most powerful thing you can do is nothing. When we are silent we are closest to what we really are, an infinity beyond mental comprehension. Give silence a chance. You will find your life transformed without conscious effort.
"It is necessary to become familiar with silence, and learn how to enjoy and be nourished by it."
http://thewayofseeing.com/article_toward-silence.html
Monday, December 12, 2011
Tao of Creation
by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart
Despite the achievements of health, wealth and love, the only certainty in life is that it will end in death. Maintaining health and wealth is of limited value if one's life lacks meaning. I believe that while the aforementioned benefits of the Taoist arts are both real and good, the ultimate goal of Taoism is immortality. Immortality is synonymous with enlightenment, conscious union with the universal mind, and with the attainment of a spiritually transformed body that will last forever like heaven and earth.
Therefore the purpose of this article is to examine the various Taoist arts from the perspective of the Taoist yogi on the path to becoming an immortal, to see how all of these branches relate to the trunk of Taoist beliefs and goals.
THE BASIC VIEW OF TAOISM
Although there are many diverse arts flowing from the wellspring of Taoism, all of these different arts are grounded in the same set of principles, what Taoists see as the fundamental laws of Nature applying to all things, high and low. These principles form the core of Taoist "general systems theory." By developing a working knowledge of
these natural principles, you will have the master key to open the mysterious portals of the Tao.
Wu Ji
In the beginning, nothing existed. In Chinese this is called Wu Ji (meaning
absolute nothingness). Wu Ji is synonymous with the Buddhist word sunyata, meaning emptiness, the void, pure openness, no boundary. Wu Ji is also sometimes referred to as the mystery, the nameless, the great mother, the source. Thus Lao Tzu says, "That which can be named is not the eternal name." Words cannot describe Wu Ji; it is beyond any thought, idea or concept, yet it can be directly experienced. Conscious realization of Wu Ji is called "Returning to the Source."
Qi
The first principle to manifest out of Wu Ji is primordial energy. The Chinese call this energy Qi. Qi (pronounced "chee") means breath, air, wind, or energy, and is similar in meaning to the Sanskrit word prana, the Hebrew word Ruach (breath of God), and to the Tibetan word rLung.
Qi is the force of all movement, from the movements of waves and sub-atomic particles to the movement of stars and planets. Qi is the force moving world systems into creation, existence and destruction; everything manifests out of Qi, exists as a form
of Qi, and returns to Qi. In living creatures it becomes the life force and source of all metabolism. Qi is even the root of the movement of consciousness, of thought, sensory
awareness and emotions. The activity of Qi is what holds things together: atoms, molecules, our bodies, the earth, the solar system.
As soon as Qi appeared, it moved as Yin and Yang. The Chinese character for Yin depicts the shady side of a mountain, while the character for Yang depicts the sunny side. Thus some characteristics of Yin are earth, receptiveness, darkness, cold, moisture, heaviness, descension, contractiveness, stillness. Yang, by relative contrast, is heaven, creativity, brightness, warmth, dryness, lightness, ascension, expansion, activity. Everything in the relative world of existence can be viewed in terms of Yin and Yang. However, Yin and Yang are not separate; they are like the two poles of the same magnet.
Thus, nothing is entirely Yin nor entirely Yang; each contains the other. The interdependent existence of Yin and Yang is known as Tai Ji (the Most High). Tai Ji and Wu Ji are seen as inseparable. Yin and Yang create each other; as soon as you have a front, you must also have a back. Yin and Yang check and balance each other; if something is too hot, you balance it by adding cold. Yin and Yang also transform into one another; activity naturally transforms into rest, night transforms into day. Life is peaceful when Yin and Yang are in harmony and balance, when the transitions from Yin to Yang and Yang to Yin are gradual and even. When either Yin or Yang becomes too extreme or when the transitions from Yin to Yang are unusually sudden and abrupt, harmony and balance are lost. These imbalances may appear as health problems, relationship difficulties, trade deficits, or unseasonal weather; all the changes in the universe can be analysed by understanding Yin and Yang.
Wu Hsing - The Five Phases: Yin and Yang are further subdivided into Wu Hsing. Wu means five Wu means five, while hsing means form. Thus Wu Hsing is translated as the Five Forms, Five Phases (of Qi transformation) or most commonly as the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.....
Thus all existence unfolds from the emptiness of Wu Ji into Tai Ji, the dance of Yin and Yang. From Yin and Yang things are further differentiated into the Five Phases and the Eight Trigrams. From these all of the myriad forms of existence come into being. Dazzled by the various appearances, we forget who we are and where we come from. Taoist spiritual practices seek to reverse this process. All phenomenal forms can be summed up in the eight trigrams, the eight trigrams can be simplified to the Five Phases; the Five Phases can be reduced to Yin and Yang, and when Yin and Yang come into equipoise, one can perceive Wu Ji.
(Foundations of Taoist practice pp.2-6)
Despite the achievements of health, wealth and love, the only certainty in life is that it will end in death. Maintaining health and wealth is of limited value if one's life lacks meaning. I believe that while the aforementioned benefits of the Taoist arts are both real and good, the ultimate goal of Taoism is immortality. Immortality is synonymous with enlightenment, conscious union with the universal mind, and with the attainment of a spiritually transformed body that will last forever like heaven and earth.
Therefore the purpose of this article is to examine the various Taoist arts from the perspective of the Taoist yogi on the path to becoming an immortal, to see how all of these branches relate to the trunk of Taoist beliefs and goals.
THE BASIC VIEW OF TAOISM
Although there are many diverse arts flowing from the wellspring of Taoism, all of these different arts are grounded in the same set of principles, what Taoists see as the fundamental laws of Nature applying to all things, high and low. These principles form the core of Taoist "general systems theory." By developing a working knowledge of
these natural principles, you will have the master key to open the mysterious portals of the Tao.
Wu Ji
In the beginning, nothing existed. In Chinese this is called Wu Ji (meaning
absolute nothingness). Wu Ji is synonymous with the Buddhist word sunyata, meaning emptiness, the void, pure openness, no boundary. Wu Ji is also sometimes referred to as the mystery, the nameless, the great mother, the source. Thus Lao Tzu says, "That which can be named is not the eternal name." Words cannot describe Wu Ji; it is beyond any thought, idea or concept, yet it can be directly experienced. Conscious realization of Wu Ji is called "Returning to the Source."
Qi
The first principle to manifest out of Wu Ji is primordial energy. The Chinese call this energy Qi. Qi (pronounced "chee") means breath, air, wind, or energy, and is similar in meaning to the Sanskrit word prana, the Hebrew word Ruach (breath of God), and to the Tibetan word rLung.
Qi is the force of all movement, from the movements of waves and sub-atomic particles to the movement of stars and planets. Qi is the force moving world systems into creation, existence and destruction; everything manifests out of Qi, exists as a form
of Qi, and returns to Qi. In living creatures it becomes the life force and source of all metabolism. Qi is even the root of the movement of consciousness, of thought, sensory
awareness and emotions. The activity of Qi is what holds things together: atoms, molecules, our bodies, the earth, the solar system.
As soon as Qi appeared, it moved as Yin and Yang. The Chinese character for Yin depicts the shady side of a mountain, while the character for Yang depicts the sunny side. Thus some characteristics of Yin are earth, receptiveness, darkness, cold, moisture, heaviness, descension, contractiveness, stillness. Yang, by relative contrast, is heaven, creativity, brightness, warmth, dryness, lightness, ascension, expansion, activity. Everything in the relative world of existence can be viewed in terms of Yin and Yang. However, Yin and Yang are not separate; they are like the two poles of the same magnet.
Thus, nothing is entirely Yin nor entirely Yang; each contains the other. The interdependent existence of Yin and Yang is known as Tai Ji (the Most High). Tai Ji and Wu Ji are seen as inseparable. Yin and Yang create each other; as soon as you have a front, you must also have a back. Yin and Yang check and balance each other; if something is too hot, you balance it by adding cold. Yin and Yang also transform into one another; activity naturally transforms into rest, night transforms into day. Life is peaceful when Yin and Yang are in harmony and balance, when the transitions from Yin to Yang and Yang to Yin are gradual and even. When either Yin or Yang becomes too extreme or when the transitions from Yin to Yang are unusually sudden and abrupt, harmony and balance are lost. These imbalances may appear as health problems, relationship difficulties, trade deficits, or unseasonal weather; all the changes in the universe can be analysed by understanding Yin and Yang.
Wu Hsing - The Five Phases: Yin and Yang are further subdivided into Wu Hsing. Wu means five Wu means five, while hsing means form. Thus Wu Hsing is translated as the Five Forms, Five Phases (of Qi transformation) or most commonly as the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.....
Thus all existence unfolds from the emptiness of Wu Ji into Tai Ji, the dance of Yin and Yang. From Yin and Yang things are further differentiated into the Five Phases and the Eight Trigrams. From these all of the myriad forms of existence come into being. Dazzled by the various appearances, we forget who we are and where we come from. Taoist spiritual practices seek to reverse this process. All phenomenal forms can be summed up in the eight trigrams, the eight trigrams can be simplified to the Five Phases; the Five Phases can be reduced to Yin and Yang, and when Yin and Yang come into equipoise, one can perceive Wu Ji.
(Foundations of Taoist practice pp.2-6)
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Be Here Now
To Be means to let go and turn onto being/feeling fully alive and awake. Being Here means *filling the space* with your total presence and giving full attention to all matters closest to home. Mindfulness or sensitivity/awareness is key. Being Here Now means openness to thr momentum and flow of light/energy, tapping into *pure creative potential*... "What can I potentially do and accomplish with my free time today?".
True contentment is recognizing that the greatest opportunity for life, love and happiness is right here, right now, rooted in the depths of your being, embodied in/as the immediate present moment...
JDZ
True contentment is recognizing that the greatest opportunity for life, love and happiness is right here, right now, rooted in the depths of your being, embodied in/as the immediate present moment...
JDZ
Saturday, November 19, 2011
In Death Is Immortality
Surely, in ending there is renewal, is there not? It's only in death that a new thing comes into being. I am not giving you comfort. This is not something to be believed or thought about or intellectually examined and accepted, for then you will make it into another comfort, as you now believe in reincarnation or continuity in the hereafter, and so on. But the actual fact is that that which continues has no rebirth, no renewal. Therefore, in dying every day there is renewal, there is a rebirth. That is immortality.
In death there is immortality, not the death of which you are afraid, but the death of previous conclusions, memories, experiences, with which you are identified as the 'me'. In the dying of the 'me' every minute there is eternity, there is immortality, there is a thing to be experienced -not to be speculated upon or lectured about, as you do about reincarnation and all that kind of stuff. When you are no longer afraid, because every minute there is an ending and therefore a renewal, then you are open to the unknown. Reality is the unknown. Death is also the unknown. But to call death beautiful, to say how marvelous it is because we shall continue in the hereafter and all that nonsense, has no reality.
What has reality is seeing death as it is, an ending; an ending in which there is renewal, a rebirth, not a continuity. For that which continues decays; and that which has the power to renew itself is eternal.
- J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
In death there is immortality, not the death of which you are afraid, but the death of previous conclusions, memories, experiences, with which you are identified as the 'me'. In the dying of the 'me' every minute there is eternity, there is immortality, there is a thing to be experienced -not to be speculated upon or lectured about, as you do about reincarnation and all that kind of stuff. When you are no longer afraid, because every minute there is an ending and therefore a renewal, then you are open to the unknown. Reality is the unknown. Death is also the unknown. But to call death beautiful, to say how marvelous it is because we shall continue in the hereafter and all that nonsense, has no reality.
What has reality is seeing death as it is, an ending; an ending in which there is renewal, a rebirth, not a continuity. For that which continues decays; and that which has the power to renew itself is eternal.
- J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Life in Freedom
The desire for freedom, the desire to escape from all things, or rather to transcend all things, is necessary for the attainment of perfection. You can only free yourself if your mind and heart have determined their purpose in life and are continually struggling towards it, never yielding to those things which create barriers between yourself and your goal.
To attain perfection, to walk towards the goal of Truth which is eternal happiness for all, at whatever stage of evolution you may be, it is necessary to be rid of the binding narrow traditions that are born out of blind belief and have no touch with life.
As, when the rains come, only those who have prepared their fields and removed the weeds will have the full produce of their labor, the full benefit of the rain, so, if you would have the Beloved always with you, you must remove from your mind and heart the complicated ideas, traditions, and narrow points of view, which are as weeds that kill true understanding. For without understanding there can be no cooperation with life.
UNDERSTANDING
FOR the well-being of the mind and heart, understanding is as essential as a warm fire on a cold night.
People imagine that they can attain by some miraculous process, that they can find Truth by the mere outward form of worship, that they can discover their goal by the continual repetition of prayers and chants, or by the performance of yoga, puja and other rites. You can only discover that which you desire, that for which your heart longs, and for which your mind craves, by yourself, through the purification of the heart and mind.
If you would understand Truth you must remove from your heart those stones and weeds which strangle its full growth.
Where there is narrowness of mind and limitation of heart, Truth cannot enter. If you would climb to that height where there are eternal snows, you must leave behind you the accumulation of your possessions, you must be hardened and well trained; and your heart must be filled with the desire of attainment.
For those who have no fixed purpose there is renunciation and self-sacrifice; there is sorrow, grief and pain, endless struggle and violent dissatisfaction. But for those who have the fixed purpose to attain the Truth which is the unfoldment of life -though they may dwell in the valley of the shadows- there is no sacrifice, there is no struggle.
Because you have no fixed purpose all the shadows of the valley entice you, wrap you in their soft fogs, so that you lose the ecstasy of life. But if you have established your goal, which is the goal of the world -the attainment of the Kingdom of Happiness through freedom from all experience- then you can control the future, then you are the creator of that which you desire. If you can pass through the valley of the shadows with eyes eternally fixed upon the mountain-top, then you can have all experiences without creating barriers between yourself and the goal. This is the understanding of life which will bring order out of chaos and it is for that purpose that the Beloved has come. As the true artist, who by his imagination creates beauty out of the chaos around him, out of the confusion which exists in the world, so the Beloved, Truth, creates order in the mind and heart of those who understand. When you understand, you will have solved the problem of your daily life. If there is no struggle within to free yourself from the cage of sorrow and pain, from the limitations which cause confusion, then, however much I may knock at the door of your heart, there will be no response. But the moment you yourself are dissatisfied, the moment you yourself desire to escape and to attain liberation, then you yourself seek the source of Truth.
Those who seek for an understanding of life must fix their inward perception on eternal Truth which is the unfolding of life.
To those who live and have their being in the valley, the mountains are mysterious, hard, cruel, eternally aloof. The mountains never change; they are ever constant, never yielding. So it is with Truth. To those who live in the valley of shadows, of transient things, Truth seems terrible, hard and cruel.
Everywhere, among all people, there is a search for something hidden, for some realization which will give wisdom, greater knowledge, greater vision, greater understanding; this the people call Truth.
They think that Truth lies hidden in some distant place, away from life, away from joy, away from sorrow. But Truth is life, and with an understanding of life there is born an understanding of Truth. When you are fulfilling life with understanding you are the master of Truth.
Though there is at the present time a revolt against tradition and the established order of things, against morality in the narrow sense, yet the majority of people still judge and try to understand life from the prejudiced point of view of a limited and settled mind. A Hindu will only recognize Truth when it is presented to him through the medium of Hinduism, and so it is with the Christian and the Buddhist. But Truth is never contained in a particular form or medium. Truth can only be understood with an unbiased mind, capable of detachment and pure judgment.
As every human being is divine, so every individual in the world should be his own master, his own absolute ruler and guide. But if he would guide himself intelligently, he must be able to judge all things with an open mind and not reject what he does not understand because he is prejudiced.
Truth is the power within each one of you which urges you on to attainment. It is the consummation of all intelligence. It is Absolute. There is no god except the man who has purified himself and so has attained to Truth.
When you bind life to beliefs and traditions, to codes of morality, you kill life. In order to keep alive, vital, ever changing, ever growing, as the tree that is ever putting out new leaves, you must give to life the opportunities, the nourishment which will strengthen it and make it grow. When life desires to find its freedom the only way by which it can attain is through experience.
There can be no understanding of life, which is Truth, when there is not the thrill, the agony, the suffering, the continual upheaval, discouragement and encouragement of life.
In the olden days, especially in India, those who desired to find Truth imagined that they could discover the way by withdrawing from the aching world, from the transient things, from the shadow of the real, by the destruction of the physical. But now you have to face life as it is, for you can only conquer life when you have a complete and not a partial
understanding of it.
Once there was a man who kept all the windows of his house well closed except one, hoping that through that window alone the sunlight would come, but it never came. That is what those people are doing who are bound by tradition, by narrow sectarian beliefs, and who think that Truth is contained in any of those beliefs. You cannot bind life, which is the Truth, by anything, for life must be free and untrammeled. If you do not understand that the purpose of life is freedom, then you are only gilding the bars of your cage by the invention of theories, of creeds, of philosophies and religions.
The basis of all these innumerable beliefs is fear. You are afraid for your salvation, you are afraid to test your own knowledge, and hence you rely on the assertions, on the authority of another.
In order to be happy need we have religions? In order to love need we build temples? In order to fulfill the self need we worship a personal god?
You must give to the suffering world, not beliefs, creeds, dogmas, but new understanding which comes from intelligent cooperation with Nature, through observation of all the events of daily life.
Those who would understand Truth, who would give of their heart and their mind to that Truth, must first have grown in experience. Then experience will guide them, for experience gives intelligence, and intelligence is the accumulation of all experience. The web of life is spun out of common things and the common things are experience.
Learn from every event, from every activity in daily life, and assimilate the experience every moment of the day. You go to temples or to churches or to other places of worship and there you imagine that you are purified. But does that purification stand the test of daily life?
Your theories, your superficial knowledge of life, do not help you at moments of crisis. When death comes and takes away your friend, your beliefs and theories do not help you to overcome your loneliness and the sense of separation. You will only overcome it if the poison of separation has been destroyed, and you can only destroy that sense of separation by observing others in sorrow, in pain and in pleasure like yourself, and finding that in suffering as well as in pleasure there is unity.
No one can develop that power which dwells within you but yourself, for that power grows by experience. But experience alone, undirected by the goal you would attain, produces chaos, the chaos which prevails in the world at present. Without the understanding of the purpose of life there is bound to be chaos.
The first demand upon those who would seek the understanding of true happiness, is that they should have the burning longing to be free from all things, to gain that freedom which comes when you are beyond the need for further experience because you have passed through all experience.
If you would understand what I mean by the freedom of life, you must establish for yourself the goal which is liberation even from life itself.
For the understanding of life you must have revolt, dissatisfaction and great discontentment. Many people in the world imagine that they have found Truth by adopting some theory or other, and hence that they have solved the whole problem of life.
Contentment without understanding is like a pool covered with green scum, which does not reflect the bare eye of heaven. It is very easy to be ignorantly discontented, but to be discontented and to revolt intelligently is a divine gift. Revolt with intelligence, with understanding, is as a great river that is full of power.
Revolt is essential in order to escape from the narrowness of tradition, from the binding influences of belief, of theories. If you would understand the Truth, you must be in revolt so that you may escape from all these -from books, from theories, from gods, from superstitions- from everything which is not of your own.
If you would understand the meaning of my words, then throw aside all your mental conceptions of life and begin again from the very beginning. Then you will see for yourself how life works, how life which is the accumulation of all experience speaks through that voice which we call intuition, which guides you and helps you on the onward path.
I would urge you to be free -free from the very gods whom you worship, from the very beings whom you hold dear, because freedom is necessary for the growth of the soul and without freedom there is decay.
Because you do not wish to be free, you seek comfort, and comfort is like the shadow of a tree, it varies according to the sun from moment to moment, and those who seek comfort must move from one abode to another. Comfort cannot dwell with understanding.
The man who seeks comfort, who searches for the satisfaction of the moment, will never find real and lasting joy, for the momentary comfort is as transitory as the flower that is born of a morning and withers at the ending of the day.
When a pond is not touched with the breath of air, the waters become stagnant, and no animal comes to it to slake its thirst. But when the fresh winds come and breathe on its face, then animals and human beings alike can quench their thirst.
So if there is not in you the fresh wind of desire for freedom
from all things, you will not find the Truth which alone can remove the thirst of the world.
When you are free, as the bird in the skies, your life becomes simple. Life is complicated only when there is limitation. Then you need traditions and beliefs to uphold you.
But when you desire to be free from all things, then you break away from the old order and enter upon that new life which will lead you towards perfection which is liberation and happiness.
When you are able to become a flame of revolt, then the means to reach the Kingdom will be found. We have to create a miracle of order in this century of chaos and superstition. But first we have to create order in ourselves, a lasting order which is not based on fear or on authority.
I have found and established for myself that which is eternal, and it is my work to create order in your mind, so that you will no longer depend on outward authority, no longer be the slave of superstition or of those trivialities which hold life in bondage, and divide you from your goal.
Because you have no true purpose in life there is chaos within you; there is misery without understanding, strife without purpose, struggle in ignorance. But when you have established the goal of the Beloved in your heart and mind there is understanding in your life. There may still be struggle but it will be with understanding, and there will be greater love and greater happiness. Establish, therefore, within you that which is eternal, and the present shadows will pass away.
When you have established the Beloved in your heart, the source and the end are united and time no longer exists, for you hold eternity within you.
When you have established the Beloved in your heart, you are ready to face the open seas, where there are great storms, and the strong breezes which quicken life.
Because you have the Beloved in your heart, you must be a lighthouse on a dark shore, to guide those who are still enshrouded in their own darkness.
Of what value is your understanding, of what value are your high and noble thoughts, your pure life, if you do not help those who are in constant pain, who are in darkness, and in confusion? Of what value is the Truth you have seen if you are not able to give of that Truth to those who are hungering and thirsting after the eternal?
Because you have understood, be courageous with that understanding, and give of your life to those who are in darkness.
"If you find truth you must put aside all those things upon which you have leaned for support and look within for that everlasting spring. It cannot be brought to you through any outward channel."
"Invite doubt, for doubt is as a precious oinment: though it burns, it shall heal greatly -by inviting doubt, by putting aside those things which you have understood, by transcending your acquirements, your understanding, you will find the Truth."
-J. KRISHNAMURTI, Life in Freedom
To attain perfection, to walk towards the goal of Truth which is eternal happiness for all, at whatever stage of evolution you may be, it is necessary to be rid of the binding narrow traditions that are born out of blind belief and have no touch with life.
As, when the rains come, only those who have prepared their fields and removed the weeds will have the full produce of their labor, the full benefit of the rain, so, if you would have the Beloved always with you, you must remove from your mind and heart the complicated ideas, traditions, and narrow points of view, which are as weeds that kill true understanding. For without understanding there can be no cooperation with life.
UNDERSTANDING
FOR the well-being of the mind and heart, understanding is as essential as a warm fire on a cold night.
People imagine that they can attain by some miraculous process, that they can find Truth by the mere outward form of worship, that they can discover their goal by the continual repetition of prayers and chants, or by the performance of yoga, puja and other rites. You can only discover that which you desire, that for which your heart longs, and for which your mind craves, by yourself, through the purification of the heart and mind.
If you would understand Truth you must remove from your heart those stones and weeds which strangle its full growth.
Where there is narrowness of mind and limitation of heart, Truth cannot enter. If you would climb to that height where there are eternal snows, you must leave behind you the accumulation of your possessions, you must be hardened and well trained; and your heart must be filled with the desire of attainment.
For those who have no fixed purpose there is renunciation and self-sacrifice; there is sorrow, grief and pain, endless struggle and violent dissatisfaction. But for those who have the fixed purpose to attain the Truth which is the unfoldment of life -though they may dwell in the valley of the shadows- there is no sacrifice, there is no struggle.
Because you have no fixed purpose all the shadows of the valley entice you, wrap you in their soft fogs, so that you lose the ecstasy of life. But if you have established your goal, which is the goal of the world -the attainment of the Kingdom of Happiness through freedom from all experience- then you can control the future, then you are the creator of that which you desire. If you can pass through the valley of the shadows with eyes eternally fixed upon the mountain-top, then you can have all experiences without creating barriers between yourself and the goal. This is the understanding of life which will bring order out of chaos and it is for that purpose that the Beloved has come. As the true artist, who by his imagination creates beauty out of the chaos around him, out of the confusion which exists in the world, so the Beloved, Truth, creates order in the mind and heart of those who understand. When you understand, you will have solved the problem of your daily life. If there is no struggle within to free yourself from the cage of sorrow and pain, from the limitations which cause confusion, then, however much I may knock at the door of your heart, there will be no response. But the moment you yourself are dissatisfied, the moment you yourself desire to escape and to attain liberation, then you yourself seek the source of Truth.
Those who seek for an understanding of life must fix their inward perception on eternal Truth which is the unfolding of life.
To those who live and have their being in the valley, the mountains are mysterious, hard, cruel, eternally aloof. The mountains never change; they are ever constant, never yielding. So it is with Truth. To those who live in the valley of shadows, of transient things, Truth seems terrible, hard and cruel.
Everywhere, among all people, there is a search for something hidden, for some realization which will give wisdom, greater knowledge, greater vision, greater understanding; this the people call Truth.
They think that Truth lies hidden in some distant place, away from life, away from joy, away from sorrow. But Truth is life, and with an understanding of life there is born an understanding of Truth. When you are fulfilling life with understanding you are the master of Truth.
Though there is at the present time a revolt against tradition and the established order of things, against morality in the narrow sense, yet the majority of people still judge and try to understand life from the prejudiced point of view of a limited and settled mind. A Hindu will only recognize Truth when it is presented to him through the medium of Hinduism, and so it is with the Christian and the Buddhist. But Truth is never contained in a particular form or medium. Truth can only be understood with an unbiased mind, capable of detachment and pure judgment.
As every human being is divine, so every individual in the world should be his own master, his own absolute ruler and guide. But if he would guide himself intelligently, he must be able to judge all things with an open mind and not reject what he does not understand because he is prejudiced.
Truth is the power within each one of you which urges you on to attainment. It is the consummation of all intelligence. It is Absolute. There is no god except the man who has purified himself and so has attained to Truth.
When you bind life to beliefs and traditions, to codes of morality, you kill life. In order to keep alive, vital, ever changing, ever growing, as the tree that is ever putting out new leaves, you must give to life the opportunities, the nourishment which will strengthen it and make it grow. When life desires to find its freedom the only way by which it can attain is through experience.
There can be no understanding of life, which is Truth, when there is not the thrill, the agony, the suffering, the continual upheaval, discouragement and encouragement of life.
In the olden days, especially in India, those who desired to find Truth imagined that they could discover the way by withdrawing from the aching world, from the transient things, from the shadow of the real, by the destruction of the physical. But now you have to face life as it is, for you can only conquer life when you have a complete and not a partial
understanding of it.
Once there was a man who kept all the windows of his house well closed except one, hoping that through that window alone the sunlight would come, but it never came. That is what those people are doing who are bound by tradition, by narrow sectarian beliefs, and who think that Truth is contained in any of those beliefs. You cannot bind life, which is the Truth, by anything, for life must be free and untrammeled. If you do not understand that the purpose of life is freedom, then you are only gilding the bars of your cage by the invention of theories, of creeds, of philosophies and religions.
The basis of all these innumerable beliefs is fear. You are afraid for your salvation, you are afraid to test your own knowledge, and hence you rely on the assertions, on the authority of another.
In order to be happy need we have religions? In order to love need we build temples? In order to fulfill the self need we worship a personal god?
You must give to the suffering world, not beliefs, creeds, dogmas, but new understanding which comes from intelligent cooperation with Nature, through observation of all the events of daily life.
Those who would understand Truth, who would give of their heart and their mind to that Truth, must first have grown in experience. Then experience will guide them, for experience gives intelligence, and intelligence is the accumulation of all experience. The web of life is spun out of common things and the common things are experience.
Learn from every event, from every activity in daily life, and assimilate the experience every moment of the day. You go to temples or to churches or to other places of worship and there you imagine that you are purified. But does that purification stand the test of daily life?
Your theories, your superficial knowledge of life, do not help you at moments of crisis. When death comes and takes away your friend, your beliefs and theories do not help you to overcome your loneliness and the sense of separation. You will only overcome it if the poison of separation has been destroyed, and you can only destroy that sense of separation by observing others in sorrow, in pain and in pleasure like yourself, and finding that in suffering as well as in pleasure there is unity.
No one can develop that power which dwells within you but yourself, for that power grows by experience. But experience alone, undirected by the goal you would attain, produces chaos, the chaos which prevails in the world at present. Without the understanding of the purpose of life there is bound to be chaos.
The first demand upon those who would seek the understanding of true happiness, is that they should have the burning longing to be free from all things, to gain that freedom which comes when you are beyond the need for further experience because you have passed through all experience.
If you would understand what I mean by the freedom of life, you must establish for yourself the goal which is liberation even from life itself.
For the understanding of life you must have revolt, dissatisfaction and great discontentment. Many people in the world imagine that they have found Truth by adopting some theory or other, and hence that they have solved the whole problem of life.
Contentment without understanding is like a pool covered with green scum, which does not reflect the bare eye of heaven. It is very easy to be ignorantly discontented, but to be discontented and to revolt intelligently is a divine gift. Revolt with intelligence, with understanding, is as a great river that is full of power.
Revolt is essential in order to escape from the narrowness of tradition, from the binding influences of belief, of theories. If you would understand the Truth, you must be in revolt so that you may escape from all these -from books, from theories, from gods, from superstitions- from everything which is not of your own.
If you would understand the meaning of my words, then throw aside all your mental conceptions of life and begin again from the very beginning. Then you will see for yourself how life works, how life which is the accumulation of all experience speaks through that voice which we call intuition, which guides you and helps you on the onward path.
I would urge you to be free -free from the very gods whom you worship, from the very beings whom you hold dear, because freedom is necessary for the growth of the soul and without freedom there is decay.
Because you do not wish to be free, you seek comfort, and comfort is like the shadow of a tree, it varies according to the sun from moment to moment, and those who seek comfort must move from one abode to another. Comfort cannot dwell with understanding.
The man who seeks comfort, who searches for the satisfaction of the moment, will never find real and lasting joy, for the momentary comfort is as transitory as the flower that is born of a morning and withers at the ending of the day.
When a pond is not touched with the breath of air, the waters become stagnant, and no animal comes to it to slake its thirst. But when the fresh winds come and breathe on its face, then animals and human beings alike can quench their thirst.
So if there is not in you the fresh wind of desire for freedom
from all things, you will not find the Truth which alone can remove the thirst of the world.
When you are free, as the bird in the skies, your life becomes simple. Life is complicated only when there is limitation. Then you need traditions and beliefs to uphold you.
But when you desire to be free from all things, then you break away from the old order and enter upon that new life which will lead you towards perfection which is liberation and happiness.
When you are able to become a flame of revolt, then the means to reach the Kingdom will be found. We have to create a miracle of order in this century of chaos and superstition. But first we have to create order in ourselves, a lasting order which is not based on fear or on authority.
I have found and established for myself that which is eternal, and it is my work to create order in your mind, so that you will no longer depend on outward authority, no longer be the slave of superstition or of those trivialities which hold life in bondage, and divide you from your goal.
Because you have no true purpose in life there is chaos within you; there is misery without understanding, strife without purpose, struggle in ignorance. But when you have established the goal of the Beloved in your heart and mind there is understanding in your life. There may still be struggle but it will be with understanding, and there will be greater love and greater happiness. Establish, therefore, within you that which is eternal, and the present shadows will pass away.
When you have established the Beloved in your heart, the source and the end are united and time no longer exists, for you hold eternity within you.
When you have established the Beloved in your heart, you are ready to face the open seas, where there are great storms, and the strong breezes which quicken life.
Because you have the Beloved in your heart, you must be a lighthouse on a dark shore, to guide those who are still enshrouded in their own darkness.
Of what value is your understanding, of what value are your high and noble thoughts, your pure life, if you do not help those who are in constant pain, who are in darkness, and in confusion? Of what value is the Truth you have seen if you are not able to give of that Truth to those who are hungering and thirsting after the eternal?
Because you have understood, be courageous with that understanding, and give of your life to those who are in darkness.
"If you find truth you must put aside all those things upon which you have leaned for support and look within for that everlasting spring. It cannot be brought to you through any outward channel."
"Invite doubt, for doubt is as a precious oinment: though it burns, it shall heal greatly -by inviting doubt, by putting aside those things which you have understood, by transcending your acquirements, your understanding, you will find the Truth."
-J. KRISHNAMURTI, Life in Freedom
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